Lutheran Pastor Among 5 Arrested By SFPD On Child Porn Offenses
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – San Francisco police have arrested five people on suspicion of child pornography-related offenses, police said on Tuesday.
The arrests were made either this month or in October following investigations beginning earlier this fall.
Police said that last week, investigators arrested a pastor of a San Francisco Lutheran church on suspicion of possessing child pornography, possessing more than 600 files of child pornography and distribution of child pornography.
According to police, the pastor, Steven Sabin, 59, was allegedly distributing child pornography through a social media application. Investigators executed a search warrant on Nov. 15 at Sabin's home in the 1300 block of Market Street and allegedly found a cellphone of Sabin's containing images and videos of children being sexually abused. Police said investigators also found that Sabin had allegedly stored child pornography in a cloud storage application.
Late last month, investigators arrested 37-year-old San Francisco resident Trevor Schlesinger, who was allegedly uploading child pornography to a file-sharing network. Schlesinger was arrested Oct. 25 at his home in the 200 block of Mallorca Way where police allegedly found a laptop belonging the Schlesinger that had videos and images of children being sexually abused.
San Francisco resident Elihu Hernandez was arrested on Oct. 16 on suspicion of possessing and distributing child pornography. Hernandez allegedly had a cellphone containing images and videos showing children being sexually abused. Investigators discovered the phone during a search of Hernandez's home in the 200 block of Eddy Street. Hernandez also was allegedly storing child pornography on a number of cellphone applications.
Two other residents were arrested in October. Nicholas Fong, 24, was arrested on suspicion of possessing child pornography and possessing more than 600 files of child pornography. Donald Wright, 58, was arrested for the same alleged offenses.
